Inertia
by Milkbottle
Summary: "There's always next time." — a compilation of a series of short drabbles, written over the year of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Assumably one-sided cedric/OC. Warning: character death.


"Love, shove over, will you?" A familiar baritone said from somewhere to my left before a soft hand thumped me lightly on my head, making me jump slightly in startled surprise.

"Arsehole," I scowled but moved aside anyway, a hand quickly reaching up to brush a few stray strands out of my eyes.

The golden-haired Hufflepuff deposited himself into the space beside me with a warm smile alighting his ridiculously symmetrical face. "Skipper," he said, and a strong arm wrapped around my shoulders to give me a friendly hug.

"Cedric," I grinned likewise. "How've you been?"

"Oh, you know, this and that," he said dismissively, a hand lifting to tug on my braid with slight affection. "Sorry we couldn't talk last night. I missed you over the summer."

I couldn't help the pink tinge that spread across my pallid cheeks, curse my womanly reflexes. "Missed you too," I muttered brusquely in response before desperately looking for something else to say, gosh darn open-ended-statements-that-leave-me-awkward-and-exasperatingly-flustered. When I arrived at nothing after about five seconds of silence, I simply waved a jerky hand and shot him a hapless glower.

"Skipper," he said, all long-suffering and amused, and the way his eyes laughed and his lips quirked and his arm tightened around my puny shoulders made me pick at my nails and crinkle my toes.

"Shut up," I murmured, looking anywhere but at his irritatingly handsome face. "You know I'm not good at these things."

"That's okay," I heard him say, and I looked at him from the corner of my eye to see him absentmindedly flipping through his Transfiguration textbook, cool as day. "You don't need to."

* * *

_The mechanics of the Undetectable Extension Charm have a distinct correlation to spells like 'Engorgio' and 'Reducio' in the sense that they are all area-altering charms and spells, and therefore have –_

"Oi," Cedric said as he lobbed a ball of parchment at my head, making me whip around to throw him a frustrated look. "What?" I hissed out of the corner of my mouth, careful to keep an eye out for Pince because she had superwomanly hearing and I, as a devout Ravenclaw, preferred to stay under her radar as much as humanly possible.

"Are you hungry?" he asked me quite normally, making me want to smack him across his wretched face because his voice definitely wasn't low enough for a library setting, the idiot _Hufflepuff_.

"No. Shut up," I told him firmly before quickly finding my place in the essay again.

– _a very simple progression in terms of process of execution. The spell, in terms of mental processes, works in a combination of observation and imagination –_

"Oi." Another ball of parchment made itself felt on the side of my head. I looked up to give him a ferocious glare.

"_What?"_

"_I'm _hungry," he said, sounding rather miffed, which in turn made me feel exponentially annoyed.

"And I care, _why?"_

"Because you are my friend and _you love me_," he said as if it should be obvious. I, on the other hand, didn't quite see how that worked.

"I don't see how that works," I said to him with an unimpressed scowl.

"Well, you should, because it's a very direct connection and if you don't, then you're very dumb for a Ravenclaw," he pronounced, sounding very satisfied with himself indeed. He did not just insult my intelligence. I began to spark.

"I will smack you," I said, sounding quite short on patience. "I assure you, I will."

"Don't do that," he said, shooting me surprisingly bright grin. I blinked for a second before turning my glare up a few notches. "Cedric," I said, and he faltered for a wee moment.

"We can go after you're done," he said, sounding a bit putout at being the one to compromise. "You won't take that long, will you?"

"Fifteen minutes," I promised, and then buried myself into my essay again.

– _or rather, the extent of imagination, in the sense that the idea of 'infinity' must be captured… or at least, however much of an infinity a person can imagine. In this way, the Undetectable Extension Charm also possesses quite a heavy metaphorical component because the infinity, in any case, is in no way literal, but rather highly personal and emotionally governed. In conclusion, the –_

Thump.

I looked down at the third offending ball of parchment and glared.

Cedric smiled at me unashamedly, another bit of parchment busy crumpling itself in his left hand. "Are you done?"

* * *

"_Your fault!" _I screeched at him about five minutes later as I packed myself out of the Library with a very angry vulture-like Madame Pince raging on after me, a bunch of haphazard pages fluttering about in some nonexistent wind that had suddenly, unfathomably appeared in the aftermath of my apparently explosive annoyance.

"How is it _my _fault?" Cedric asked indignantly as he fell into step beside me, regardless of my very blatant displeasure. "I didn't _do _anything."

I opened my mouth and then closed it again, too aggravated to even know what to say. With an upset glance at his grinning face – he was _grinning_, the incorrigible ass – I abruptly changed pace and slipped through a hidden corridor on the side.

I heard Cedric speed up a little. "Hey – hey, Skip. Come on, I'm sorry. I really am." He caught up with me pretty quickly, and I snuck a peek at his face – he was still grinning, but I did catch a sliver of regret in his smile and his eyes.

It wasn't enough.

"Piss off, Ced," I said with a short glare and then increased my pace again.

"Skip!" His voice raised and a few of the other students looked up in interest, making me feel a bit self-conscious about all the attention. "_Skip!"_

"_What?_" I stopped abruptly, which wasn't a very good idea because Cedric had apparently ascended into a ridiculously fast sprint and my unexpected stop resulted in him barreling straight into me and sending the both of us down onto the cold, hard ground. "_Cedric!"_

"I'm sorry!" he cried from on top of me but I was a bit too busy groaning under his weight and the pain to even bother considering an apology. "_Get off me!"_

"Right, of course," Cedric shuffled a bit, during which I suddenly realized exactly how we were and exactly how close he was and exactly how many students had begun to stare and my face turned into a tomato, oh, I hated being turned into something to stare at.

"Cedric," I said in an attempt to get him to speed up. My breasts brushed a bit against his chest and I was unfairly happy to see him turn into a tomato too. "Get. Off."

"I am, I am," he said, annoyingly endearing in his embarrassment, and two seconds later, he was thankfully, finally off me. "Here," he said, holding out a hand for me to grab onto. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I muttered, ignoring my butt and my wounded pride. "It's okay." I picked up my bag and began to walk away again.

"_Skip!" _he exclaimed, and I stopped once more to give him an impatient glower. "Yeah?"

And then he did something unanticipated. He placed his hands on my shoulders and then he peered deep into my eyes, making my cheeks turn even redder and the remnants of my anger melt away.

"I'm sorry," he said, and this time he wasn't smiling. "I'll talk to Pince, charm her into allowing you back in and everything. I didn't mean to make you mad, I swear. Please don't be mad. I'm really sorry."

I bit my lip in a moment of indecision, but another look into his warm grey hues and I was nodding my head before my brain had even caught up with my muscle responses. "It's okay."

He continued to stare into my eyes for a second or two more before pulling me into a long, tight hug, apparently having found what he had been looking for. "I've just realized, I really don't like it when you're upset with me. I don't think I want to do it again."

"Don't think it matters," I shrugged, hiding a small smile. "It's not like I can stay mad at you for very long."

"Yeah, but still," he said, grinning, before wrapping his hand around mine and then leading me down the other end of the hall.

"Where are we going?" I asked him in mild bemusement.

"Why, the kitchens, of course! I'm _hungry."_

You were my infinity, you absolute arse.

* * *

"So," I said as I slipped into the space beside him, making him automatically pick up his legs and place them across my lap as he continued to stare out the huge, arching window.

"It's a pretty sunset," he said, looking at me very suddenly. I peered through a clear opening and found that I quite agreed. "The best I've seen in a while."

"Mm," I mused, leaning back onto the wall with a tilted chin. "I've seen better."

Cedric nodded in consideration. There was a beat of silence.

"Dad wants me to enter the Tournament," he said quickly, abruptly, like it had been festering in him for a while now and he couldn't contain himself anymore and I felt privileged to have been the one chosen to listen, even though I wasn't all that fond of what he had actually been thinking about.

Cedric was looking at me with conflicted eyes. I pursed my lips and raised a curt eyebrow. "Do _you _want to enter the Tournament?"

Cedric cocked his head. "I'm not sure. I want to make him proud."

"Your dad's already proud of you," I told him quietly, a little worriedly. "You don't _need _to make him prouder."

"I know," Cedric said. "I want to."

"You won't be able to get out of it later," I told him, a bit more insistent.

"Yeah," he agreed with a nod. "I won't."

"Everybody's going to expect miracles out of you," I continued, a little louder than I had originally intended.

"Yeah," he nodded again. "And I'll do my very best to produce them."

"Cedric, the _death _toll –"

"I know," Cedric snapped, now looking a little annoyed. "I've thought about the consequences, Skip."

I fell silent and looked off to the side. "Looks like you've made your decision, then."

I heard a sigh followed by a rustle of movement. A small bit of parchment floated down onto my lap, and I picked it up to see 'Cedric Diggory' written on the back in a neat, wonderful flourish.

"Yeah," he said, and his voice sounded grave. "I have."

* * *

"Cedric Diggory," said Professor Dumbledore, and my heart dropped like a stone.

There was a nanosecond of silence before the Hufflepuff table burst into cheers. A stunned Cedric was quickly ushered out of his seat amidst a bunch of congratulatory kisses and claps on the back and it was like no one could get enough of the new _Hogwarts Champion _and it was like I was the only one to see that sheer, raw _fear _suddenly flit across his cursed, beautiful face. "Yeah, Cedric," the crowd was saying and pushing him towards the professors and he was dragging his feet along and smiling this incredibly fake smile and I wanted to throw something at him and then suddenly, inexplicably, he turned around to look at me.

I fiddled with my blue and bronze tie before pulling my mouth up into a very realistic smile. "Go on," I mouthed as I tilted my head slightly to the side. "Kitchens after."

The fake smile was replaced by a real one and he departed in a sea of cheers, and once he left I didn't have to be strong for him anymore, and as everybody around me began to scream about Harry Potter or fourth champions or whatever the _fuck _happened thereafter, nobody really bothered to give a shit when my eyes began to water.

* * *

"Dragons_,_" Cedric said, sounding queasy. I didn't feel all that good myself.

"_Dragons,_" he continued, sounding even queasier. I didn't say anything in response.

There was a momentary pause.

"_Dragons!"_ he said, and this time his voice was a severe squeak.

"I know," I said, and this time I lifted my hands to give his shoulders a heavy shake.

"We'll figure it out."

* * *

I looked at him. He looked at me.

"I couldn't do it right," Cedric said, and I smacked him across his head for having said anything at all.

"You did enough."

"Enough wasn't enough," he said, sounding frustrated with himself and I did my best to avoid further physical harm because he was already hurt enough.

"Stop talking," I ordered instead. "You're bothering your burns."

"That's not why you want me to stop," he said, the unhurt side of his lip pulling up into a half-smile.

There was a second's silence.

I looked at him with a suspiciously shaky gaze. "You could have died."

"'Could have', being the key phrase," Cedric tried to joke.

I tried to laugh. I didn't.

We stared at each other in consideration.

"Skip?" Cedric asked. "You okay?"

I should have responded but I couldn't, because I was too busy crying into his arms.

* * *

"Hello, Cedric," Cho said with a beautiful smile.

"Uh, hi," Cedric said, shooting her his customary grin. "Can I help you?"

Cho faltered for a second, but it wasn't really enough to make her fully retreat. "Oh, it's nothing – I just wanted to congratulate you over your amazing performance in the First Task. That transfiguration of yours was brilliant."

"I technically came third," he said, all deadpan. "I also burned about half of my face."

Cho thought about how to respond.

"You did it quite heroically, though," I said, muffling a giggle with my scarf.

"Piss off," Cedric said, mock-offended. "Thank you, Cho," he said to the black-haired girl, who suddenly looked quite out-of-sorts. "See you around." And then he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and we left.

Once out of sight, I raised a hand to pinch a rather sensitive part of his neck, making him squeal.

"What was that for?" he asked me, rubbing the red spot on his skin with a hint of due irritation.

"You know why," I said, fully justified. "She didn't deserve that."

"Deserve _what?"_ he exclaimed. "I didn't do anything!"

I stared at him for a second. He looked back at me, completely, ridiculously, _genuinely _bewildered.

"Boys," I muttered under my breath before beginning to walk once more.

"What?" he said as he caught up with me. "Don't give me that look, tell me what you're talking about!"

I did not dignify him with an answer.

* * *

"So, this egg," I said, giving it a hesitant nudge with my big toe.

"It sings underwater," he told me, looking a little unsure himself.

"It what?" I blinked. "Okay." I recovered quickly. "What does it sing?"

"Ah," he scratched the side of his head before handing me a slip of parchment. "I wrote it down."

"_Come seek us where our voices sound…we cannot sing above the ground –"_

"It's talking about the merpeople in the Black Lake," Cedric interrupted quietly. "The guys helped me figure it out."

I continued to read. "_And while you're searching ponder this; …we've taken what you'll sorely miss – _taken what you'll sorely miss." I looked up at him in inquiry. "What are they going to take?"

"I dunno," he shrugged uncaringly. "My broom? The watch dad gave me for my birthday? That Muggle Walkman you gifted me last Christmas?"

I flushed a bit at the latter. "I don't know, those sound awfully materialistic, don't they? Considering it's the Triwizard Tournament, it's very probable they'll take something much more… well, for the lack of a better word, hard-hitting."

We stared at each other in silence. "I suppose," he agreed reluctantly, and for a second I could have sworn his eyes had flashed a bit in worry. "Whatever."

I scrutinized him carefully. "What are you thinking?"

Cedric waved a dismissive hand. "Nothing important. Read the rest of it, yeah?"

He wanted me to drop the subject. I looked at him for a heavy second before returning my gaze to the slip of parchment. "So how are you going to stay underwater for an hour, then?"

"Ah, yes." There was a small pause. "I was kind of hoping you could help me with that."

I shook my head at him, slightly surprised. "Of course. Why would you even ask?"

* * *

"You're… going with Cho."

Cedric ruffled his hair and grinned. "Yeah."

I tried not to let my disappointment show because honestly, I had no right to feel like so and he had every right to take Cho to the Yule Ball and really, I couldn't expect anything out of an obviously platonic relationship but god damn it, Cedric, I'm a bit hurt you didn't even think to ask me.

"When did you ask her?" I inquired lightly.

"Oh, I didn't," he said, his grin veering slightly into the realm of characteristic incomprehension. "She asked me."

* * *

Davy Phillips, Ravenclaw Chaser, asked me to the Yule Ball. I was bitterly happy to say yes.

* * *

"You look… magnificent."

I smoothed down my navy blue dress robes and turned a horrible shade of red. "Thank you, Cedric. You look amazing yourself."

And truly, undeniably, almost painfully, he did. His robes were crisp and sharp and his hair was gelled but artfully so and his bow tie matched his eyes and he looked like a fairytale prince come to life and the inadequacy hit me like a brick in the wind, for I did not deserve this man.

And then Cho came to stand next to him and she looked dazzling in her silver robes and they completed each other like two halves of a whole and I couldn't help but step away.

"I've got to find Davy," I said, smiling at him in apology. "I'll see you, Cedric," I touched his arm in goodbye and set off to find my marginally less amazing date and completely failed to notice the uncertainty in his gaze as he looked on right after me.

* * *

"Where's your date?" his voice said from behind me, and I turned in my chair to see him, sans Cho, standing there in all his glory, a small smile lighting up his beautiful face.

I sighed. "He's gone to the loo. Too much punch."

My 'date' had disappeared into the bathrooms sometime earlier in the evening and didn't look to be making another appearance anytime soon – so much for a fairytale evening.

"Where's Cho?" I asked instead.

"With Marietta and the rest," he said with a shrug. "Something about powdering her nose or whatever, I don't know."

He settled into the chair beside me. "Ball's almost over," he gestured, and I nodded. It was two 'o' clock in the morning. There were a few couples still enjoying the last few dances but most of the people had already left for the evening.

"Do you want to dance?"

I looked at Cedric in slight bewilderment. "Me?"

Cedric laughed. "Well, of course," he replied, and quickly got out of his seat before pulling me up as well. "Come on."

We stumbled on to the center of the floor and he put his hand on my hip and I suddenly realized that the moderately fast number that had been previously playing had veered into a much slower tune without catching my notice and as he placed his other hand inside my own, I immediately began to feel incredibly insufficient.

"You sure about this?" I asked him softly, unsurely, very vulnerably.

Cedric looked down at me, eternally confused. "What's not to be sure about?"

* * *

The thin silver chain felt cold around my neck as I fingered the snowflake charm with tender hands.

"Happy Valentine's," Cedric said as he pulled me into a warm embrace. I did my best not to swoon. "And happy birthday."

_I love you_.

* * *

Water.

Water in my nose, my mouth, my ears, my clothes, my mind, my heart, my fears. Water all around me.

I did not know how to swim.

"Hey, hey," a soothing voice broke through my flailing arms and panicked sputters and a pair of strong arms wrapped around me like a cocoon of warmth, of safety, of undeniable comfort, of pure _Cedric_ and I stopped, suddenly calmer.

Cedric brought me towards his chest and held me there and I automatically began to focus on the rhythm of his beating heart and for a few moments, we only floated.

"You're going to be okay."

* * *

"I was afraid it was going to be a person," Cedric told me as we sat by the fireside. "Especially after you said it would probably be something much more hard-hitting than mere property… I was afraid it was going to be a person and I was afraid it was going to be you."

I pulled the blanket closer around myself and lay my head onto the Hufflepuff's warm shoulder. "Not your dad? Or any of your other friends? Not… Cho?"

"Cho?" Cedric repeated, sounding flummoxed. "Why _Cho_? I hardly know her."

"But you went with her to the Yule Ball," I felt the need to explain. "Plus you did spend quite a bit of time with her after."

"Please," he scoffed, tightening his grip around my waist in a way that left me nervous and breathless. "She hardly matches up to you."

* * *

I felt my cheeks just about burst as they were pulled in all directions to an impossible extreme. "Why, you're charming as ever," Mrs. Diggory said with a laugh as she let go of my face and instead pulled me into a suffocating hug, making me wince as the air was forced very abruptly out of me.

"Of course, of course," Mr. Diggory agreed as he slapped me on the back, making me stumble forward at the sudden force. "A fine match for Cedric, isn't she?"

"Amos!" said Mrs. Diggory as Cedric and I turned beet red in embarrassment. "What?" he asked in genuine confusion.

"Ignore what dad says," Cedric muttered out of the corner of his mouth. I turned even redder. "That's what everybody does."

Thing was, this time, I almost didn't want to.

* * *

"It's the last one," Cedric said as we regarded the looming maze with fitting apprehension.

"The toughest one yet," I said with a frown.

"I'm in the lead," Cedric tried to grin.

I was unimpressed. "Anything can happen inside."

A tiny scowl made its way across his face. "Could you be any more pessimistic?"

I retreated, abashed. He didn't need this and I was wrong. "I apologize."

We listened to the whistling of the wind. "When does it begin?" I finally asked, really not all that anxious to find out.

Cedric looked back at the maze, his eyes pensive and his hair a mess and he looked so incredibly beautiful against that warm evening sun that I couldn't help but hope, one day, he would feel the same way I did, god knows I loved him. "At sundown."

* * *

"Five minutes, Ced!" One of his fellow Hufflepuffs (Donovan or whatever, I didn't give two quacks about what his name was.) shouted into the Champion's tent. The crowd outside roared in agreement with a bunch of people cheering Cedric's name and a few others hooting on in an impossible cacophony.

"Is it too late to back out?" I asked him a little nervously. He furrowed his brows and laughed. "Quite possibly, yeah."

I gave him a worried look. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"That's just your worry talking," Cedric said dismissively, but this time I was serious.

"Promise me you'll be careful," I said, taking his hand in mine. "No, don't scoff, look at me –" I forced him to look straight into my eyes. "Promise me you'll keep yourself safe. _Even_ if you don't win."

Cedric stared at me for a few seconds before stretching his lips into a reassuring smile. "Skip," he said, and pulled me into a smothering hug. I felt a bit surprised. "You know I will."

I lifted my head to give him a searching glance. A momentary analysis of our closeness, our position, of the distance between our lips and of the fact that I could practically feel his breath washing over my face and I thought, if I moved just a bit forward, our lips would meet and fireworks would erupt, and Cedric was probably thinking along the same lines because he moved forward too, but then the horn blew and I thought, _never mind_.

"Good luck," I said and hugged him one last time, memorizing the look on his face as I slipped out the back end to settle down into the bleachers with the rest of the cloud.

And as I saw him take his place in front of the maze, his eyes alit and his hair a glow in the setting sun, I ignored the sinking feeling in my heart and figured, _there's always next time._

* * *

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

All was still.

It was like my mind had frozen in time and the world along with it because amidst all that background noise, the only thing I could focus on was the fact that Potter was crying and Cedric, _my Cedric, _he wasn't _moving_ and _goddamn it all_ I wish he did.

I did not cry.

I did not scream.

I did not shout, or yell, or moan, or faint.

I just stood there.

Thump.

Thump.

For Cedric, _my Cedric_, he was gone.

And suddenly, there was no tomorrow.

* * *

.

.

(A/N: I know I should be updating my other story but I've been swamped with work and this simply wouldn't let me go and I'm working on it, I swear. I hope you liked this one, though. -R)


End file.
